By Stephen Yellin
(Note: I am running for Township Council in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey this year!)
Today was Harry Avrutin's favorite day of the year - although it might have been edged into 2nd place by his wedding anniversary. You see, Grandpa Harry was a Union man; more specifically, he was an organizer and high-ranking official within the New York City labor movement for over 50 years.
His life is worth examining on this favorite day of his - Labor Day, 2011, in an America where unions are trying to prevent another Gilded Age from occurring. This is not a mere panegyric to my Grandpa; as you will see, his career is a mirror of the changing fortunes in the union movement in the 20th century - a great rise and a slow, painful decline.